Oversize Me

A few years ago one of the fast food restaurants had an ad campaign that showed enthusiastic customers asking to “Supersize me.” They could get the big gulp drink. What a deal!

Now we are hearing that these big drinks contribute to obesity in the United States and there is a move to start limiting the size of these sugary sodas as well as discussion about all portions sizes. Some places are listing the calories along with the price of items. When I stop at Au Bon Pain on the walk home from the library, I am tempted with the lemon bar. It is over 500 calories. I usually pass when I consider this is more than a quarter of my daily calorie intake.

Sometimes we have no choice. We know portions in restaurants are too large. We know it has too many calories or too much fat or salt. But, when it comes to eating out, we can’t control the size of the portion served to us. The only thing we can do is substitute a veggie for a starch, take home the uneaten portion in a box (try putting half your meal in the box before you start to eat), or leave the uneaten food on the plate. Usually we stuff ourselves.

The meatloaf special served for Dave’ birthday.

The past weekend was filled with a lot of eating out. Due to circumstances there were meals that were fairly close together. Now we have a mini fridge filled with little boxes and bellies that are filled with too much food. I’m not pointing the finger at restaurants except that they are behind the times. People are wanting small plates and the opportunity to “graze.” The talks shows are saying that Americans are tending toward that trend. I prefer a little “snack” almost every four hours. With that in mind, my choices at restaurants tend to an appetizer and small plate. Not only do the portions sizes suit me, but I get to sample more flavors.

In a land of plenty, we have too much plenty. My solution to this issue is, once again, education. American people are beginning to understand that they need to make healthy choices. If we want to treat ourselves with a fatty or sugary food this time, we can be sensible for the rest of the day. If we stuff ourselves at one meal we cut down the portions size later on. It is common sense and most of us have done this all along.